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  'Cannabis' Brain Tumour Drug Hope
Posted by CN Staff on August 14, 2004 at 21:10:59 PT
An extract of cannabis was used in the study  
Source: BBC News UK  

medical An ingredient in marijuana may be useful for treating brain cancers, say Spanish researchers from Madrid. Chemicals called cannabinoids could starve tumours to death by halting the growth of blood vessels that feed it, the Complutense University team hope.

By studying mice, the team has shown for the first time how these chemicals block vessel growth. Their study, published in Cancer Research, also shows the treatment appears to work in humans.

Glioblastoma multiforme is the most common brain cancer and is notoriously difficult to treat.

It can evade destruction by radiotherapy, chemotherapy and surgery.

Dr Manuel Guzmán and colleagues set out to determine whether they could prevent the cancer from growing by destroying its blood supply.

Previous research has shown cannabinoids block the growth of blood vessels in mice, but little is known about how these chemicals do this and whether they might do the same in human tumours.

Starving Tumours

The researchers first gave mice cancer resembling the human form of brain cancer they wanted to study.

They then treated the mice with cannabinoid and examined the genes of the mice.

The activity of genes associated with blood vessel growth in tumours through the production of a substance called vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) was reduced.

Cannabinoids appeared to stifle VEGF production by increasing the activity of a substance that controls cell death, called ceramide.

Lead researcher Dr Guzmán said: "As far as we know, this is the first report showing that ceramide depresses VEGF pathway by interfering with VEGF production."

Their next challenge was to see if cannabinoids had the same effect in humans.

They took samples from two patients with glioblastoma multiforme who had not responded to surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment.

Treatment for Humans

Samples were taken before and after the patients were treated with cannabinoid solution infused directly into the tumour.

In both patients, VEGF levels in the tumour were reduced following treatment with cannabinoids.

Although they only looked at two patients, the researchers hope their findings could lead to new treatments.

"The present findings provide a novel pharmacological target for cannabinoid-based therapies," said Dr Guzmán.

Dr Richard Sullivan, Head of Clinical Programmes at Cancer Research UK, said: "This research provides an important new lead compound for anti-cancer drugs targeting cancer's blood supply.

"Although this work is at an early stage of development, other research has already demonstrated that VEGF is an important drug target for a range of cancers.

"The key now will be to show further activity in pre-clinical cancer models, find out in which combinations cannabinoids show greatest activity and formulate a product that can be tested in man.

"It is important to note that cannabinoids would need to generate very strong data in the future as there are already a number of VEGF inhibitors in clinical development," he said.

This research provides an important new lead compound for anti-cancer drugs -- Dr Richard Sullivan, Cancer Research UK

Source: BBC News (UK Web)
Published: Sunday, August 15, 2004
Copyright: 2004 BBC
Contact: newsonline@bbc.co.uk
Website: http://news.bbc.co.uk/

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http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17748.shtml

Pot Shrinks Tumors - Government Knew in '74
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread9211.shtml


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Comment #10 posted by breeze on August 15, 2004 at 18:37:10 PT
dididadadidit- loved the lymric!! =)
When our armed forces get involved in the wod against the opium/heroin trade, I fear that the repurcusion from doing so will be at a great cost to human life. Considering what I saw on the tape, the honor code among the drug kingpins was simple when dealing with those who were political power or in charge of shipments of drugs from South America- "You will accept either silver, or lead as payment." The program went on to reveal that the wife of a man who had destroyed a few camps where cocaine was processed was shot while riding down a public street, a guy just walked up to the vehicle she was in, opened the door, and bang- walked away.

The power of money has that effect over people, they attack whoever/however they can to get their way. And by this statement, I mean BOTH sides. I do not think that money is worth a persons life, but there are several in our nation who do, including politicians. Consider how much money they recieve for keeping cannabis alone in its drug schedule classification as illegal and you will see my point.

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Comment #9 posted by dididadadidit on August 15, 2004 at 14:44:45 PT
Bush I, CIA, Drugs and Guns
Breeze, I appreciate your comment on the drugs coming our way after the arms went south to Latin America. A friend of mine came up with the following ditty going into the '88 election, which I think captures the whole idea quite nicely.

Georgie Porgie, Bush and Quale,

Here's the team the Contra's hail.

Fly down guns, and fly back drugs,

Government, as run by thugs.

I have read elsewhere today that the our army in Afghanistan is preparing to take on the opium war there. They best watch their backs if they threaten the wrong drug lords, the CIA don't take kindly to having their black ops budgets (or individual retirement plans) messed with. Unfortunately, some things seem never to change.

Cheers

?

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #8 posted by breeze on August 15, 2004 at 05:48:37 PT
Why I want cannabis to be legal
Maybe we should send this article to ALL small town newspapers, and big city newspapers. Maybe we should send this article and its research to all ONCOLOGIST's and other doctor's. Maybe we should alert our local news stations, and radio networks. Maybe we should bring this to the attention of our preachers, congressmen and neighbors. Think it would convince them otherwise, after the past decades of brain washing and bleaching?

Society today, as a whole in the USA, is one of the most discompassionate group of @$$h*les in the world- IF they weren't, they would have ALREADY been a massive shift in principles, policy, and laws. People have to demand change and do it in MASS numbers before there will be a change. Most people however, use such laws to injure others and for their own ends and purposes. The people aren't going to demand such change until they HAVE the NEED for it. I will give a personal example, a relative of mine told my father I was growing marijuana, and I wasn't- where he got the idea was beyound me- this man barely knows me, but knows OF me. He did so basically to start trouble for me- why, I still have no clue. But he did it, and I managed to do something good with what he did to me, and that was recognize the need for awareness about the issue, until he did this to harm me, I was basically silent on the issue, and had nothing but good things to say about the man. Well, because of his intent and actions, I went on to become very vocal about the campaign- realizing how he used a law, rumors and inuenndo, to shame me somehow in front of my TRUE loved ones. I hope this man gets cancer, not like I had, but the kind that takes YEARS to eat away at his body- slowly deteriorating it into a rotting mass of living death. Nothing can change my emotion toward this man, for his actions were equal to what EVERY single citizen who doesn't have compassion for others and seeks to harm those who don't deserve it, such as those who have need of medication and cannot have it due to laws or cannot afford it due to laws, as the laws currently drives up the price of cannabis and even restricts citizens from purchasing other medications from Canada.

I read my newspapers, and see how local police brag about busts that are made on the local interstate, local media more than happy to publish because the efforts to punish people for what they do is against laws that people pay for with tax dollars. They pay for police to bust people, and they want to read of results. I read of corruption within the various offices of government, corporations- not always local- but existent none the less, and see how these people frequently escape the fate that people who do nothing to HARM others often face.

I have seen within my own family how people seek to hurt others, cause pain and injury, if for nothing other than their own sick amusement. I see clearly how people are malicious in almost any given activity, and then whine when someone succeeds in doing unto them what they have done to others. I have seen ministers preach against sin, and then commit the very sin and others that they taught masses of people to refrain from. I have seen such hypocrisy that it makes one almost wretch, and the masses do nothing, demand nothing and resist pursuit of efforts to change things for the betterment of mankind. I have seen the deterioration of civil laws and the constitution to favor that of a police state, and people think they are better off for it. I have seen such great harms against others, and been a victim of said harms, only to see that just about every single human on the planet is hypocritical to some degree. Their hypocricy betrays them in the end though, it always does.

I saw a sign in front of a church the other day, it said "The tounge is such a small thing, yet it is so hard to hold." This is so true, people talk about things that harm others- spreading gossip and out right lies, sometimes betraying those that hold their holier than thou values above others, other times, missing the mark and bearing out slander against innocent ones. Is this what our society has become? Yes it has.

Our view of government is frequently that of some mysterious machine, but it is not. Its people. People make government what it is. And people make others lives miserable for any number of reasons, I try to not become that but instead rise above. I don't fight back with slander and false virtues, I fight back by rising above. I do not forgive, and I do not forget- but I rise above by making an EXTREME effort to reside from becoming an example of their acts or a propostilizer of such activity. I resign from having to spread gossip or invalid facts because it is a waste of energy- I instead choose reality over fantasy. But people on average are vastly different from those who choose to rise above, money, power, religion, sex, etc. does this to people- it makes them desire sadistic pleasures. To rise above is to not seek revenge, but to transform ones self into a being who is firmly set in reality. Cannabis does this. It allows one to see the world through a different pair of eyes. It shifts ones need to retribute while allowing that person to recognize the emotion, and see it for what it is- a feeling, nothing more than a simple discharge of mental processes that effect the personality of the person. Its not the cannabis that does this, but the person within their own psyche. Its not the chemical effects of cannabis that makes a person compassionate, it is instead the unity within in ones ego that does so. Cannabis is indeed good medication- for it only helps people see things as they truly are, it doesn't distort social issues as alcohol does within the body of the user- but instead opens a plethora of happiness, something that most people do not want others to have.

People in general have such a primitive desire for others to suffer or to be miserable it almost seems genetic in its very conception. All you have to do is review the television shows that are most popular, even the comedies- as Faith No More's lead singer once proclaimed in a song, "It's funny till someone gets hurt, then it just HILARIOUS!!" And if it's not funny, then it certainly captures most peoples fascination- just look at the crime shows that are so VERY popular. But if its not physical violence (if it bleeds, it leads), then we have the type of shows that are supposed to have a moral lesson, lessons that frequently missed ironically. I suppose witnessing another undergo trauma has its virtues in hell, actually helping people is wasted on such a diablical populous.

I just finished watching a tape about the drug war, a tape thats at least three years old. It was a program about how the crack cocaine and heroin problem has esculated into an epidemic- and public officials were declaring that more police, more military, more taxes, more surveilance wasn't making even a dent in the trafficing of the drug. In fact, they stated, it made the price of the drug increase- because the demand was there, and there were people who were earning fifteen hundred dollars in a week from engaging in such activity. This was from a tape over three years old.

The tape also revealed how millions of people are employed by the drug market in other countries- and if public officials don't accept bribes, they are executed. It also demonstrated how the US government(again, people) allowed a few shipments of cocaine into the country, and it was in the tons of the addictive deadly drug. All the while, Bush Sr. declaring successes in their battle on the WOD- we shipped millions of dollars worth of military weapons over to South American nations, the plane would carry drugs on its return trip. And still, there were those who stated quite clearly that the WOD was totally ineffective, over and over throughout the show- not because of the efforts of local police, but because the entire approach to the problem is being treated opposite of the way it should be handled- because drugs are illegal, the supply will be limitless to those who want them because the money is so lucrative.

Health and money issues are at the front of this campaign, and it is apparent that bush jr. is hellbent on destroying the middle and lower class by his many actions proving so- not allowing tax dollars to go toward stem cell research, while instead renewing a campaign and signing over even more money to build prisons, and fighting the WOD, as well as working hard to keep senior citizens from purchasing their meds from Canada, implementing a drug program that over half of the senior citizens saw no benefit from, and of course all of the other issues he has managed to lie his way out of. Kerry is so silent on both of these major issues, its hard for me to say he should be in office, and at the risk of being redundant- which is of course obvious, at least he's not Bush. Well, that is all we can think NOW, the problem is, the majority of people should have thought this over four years ago. I hate politics, but it is so influential over daily life in this country that most people just do not realize HOW important it is to be attentive to what those in power can and will do. I'm not just talking major politics, but state, county, and town government as well. Your representatives aren't there to help you as an individual, they are there to harm you as only ONE of millions. Don't believe me? Just start paying attention, and get others to pay attention as well.

But as I said, people love to bring harm and injury to others, and that is the main reason so many people WILL vote for Bush and go on ignoring what those in office do with their power and influence- 'cause people just love to hurt people.

Thanks for reading- Breeze



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Comment #7 posted by CorvallisEric on August 15, 2004 at 00:39:43 PT
BGreen
So far you're right - no regular U.S. newspaper on Google News (search for guzman complutense). I'm giving it a few more hours then I will wonder if it's deja vu 2000. From the story linked above under Pot Shrinks Tumors - Government Knew in '74 :

News coverage of the Madrid discovery has been virtually nonexistent in this country. The news broke quietly on Feb. 29, 2000 with a story that ran once on the UPI wire about the Nature Medicine article. This writer stumbled on it through a link that appeared briefly on the Drudge Report Web page. The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times all ignored the story, even though its newsworthiness is indisputable: a benign substance occurring in nature destroys deadly brain tumors.

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #6 posted by BGreen on August 15, 2004 at 00:00:07 PT
This Is Getting NO U.S. Press Coverage!!!!!!
If this would have been ANY OTHER SUBSTANCE the U.S. press would have jumped all over this story. It could have been liquified cow dung or pig snot and everybody would have shouted "Hallelujah!" but because it's cannabis it's being ignored in the police states of amerika.

This proves that our lives mean NOTHING to this government and the lap dog press with their noses in gwb's crotch.

The Reverend Bud Green

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #5 posted by FoM on August 14, 2004 at 22:30:51 PT
One More Related Article from WebMD
Marijuana May Stall Brain Tumor Growth: http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread19339.shtml

[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #4 posted by FoM on August 14, 2004 at 22:17:04 PT
Here's Three More Related Articles!
Cannabis Hope for Brain Cancer: http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread19338.shtml

Marijuana Ingredient Inhibits VEGF Pathway: http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread19337.shtml

Cannabis Extract Shrinks Brain Tumours: http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread19336.shtml

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #3 posted by BGreen on August 14, 2004 at 22:01:47 PT
Yes, Cannabis IS A Miracle Plant
"It is important to note that cannabinoids would need to generate very strong data in the future as there are already a number of VEGF inhibitors in clinical development," (Dr Richard Sullivan, Head of Clinical Programmes at Cancer Research UK) said.

Let me shout one very strong reason why cannabinoids are far superior to any VEGF inhibitors in clinical development: THOUSANDS OF YEARS OF PROVEN SAFETY IN MILLIONS OF PEOPLE!

Cancer drugs work in some people but they nearly kill them in the process. It's horrible to know how toxic many of these drugs are to the body and especially to witness this destruction in a loved one.

God has given us a miracle in a plant with so many known medical indications and that anybody could easily grow in their backyards, but we have spit on God, embraced evil and caged millions for accepting this gift from the Creator.

The Reverend Bud Green

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #2 posted by The GCW on August 14, 2004 at 21:49:33 PT
Yes, Cannabis is GOOD Medicine
Ahhh, but can it help Bush?

In Biblical terms; the answer is Yes.

In some states a doctor can suggest He try cannabis.

I bet it would help Him give up the habit of killing innocent children at weddings on the other side of the world.

It may bring Him closer to Christ God Our Father and He could become a good person.

Right now Bush is very ill and needs help.

Bush is in denial. The words that He hears are not Christ God Our Father's, but that of the evil ill's spirit.

(Maybe) He is the product of eating His own vomit and other peoples urine.

The fresh food of cannabis is healthier; but He will have to make His own choices.

Suck joints; not My urine.

(Urine and vomit clogs up ears and eyes)

I shouldn't be making fun of someone who is sick.

The Green Collar Worker



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Comment #1 posted by FoM on August 14, 2004 at 21:12:04 PT
Cannabis is GOOD Medicine
When will our leaders in the USA listen?

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